


Strange Statues

by dizzy



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-19
Updated: 2009-11-19
Packaged: 2017-10-03 09:59:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dizzy/pseuds/dizzy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for <a href="http://starscythe.livejournal.com/profile"><img/></a><a href="http://starscythe.livejournal.com/"><b>starscythe</b></a> for the <a href="http://community.livejournal.com/sj_everyday/profile"><img/></a><a href="http://community.livejournal.com/sj_everyday/"><b>sj_everyday</b></a> secret santa. I didn't manage all parts of the prompt (it kind of took on a life of its own) but I hope you still like it. Thank you, <a href="http://odakota-rose.livejournal.com/profile"><img/></a><a href="http://odakota-rose.livejournal.com/"><b>odakota_rose</b></a>, for beta reading! Your input was greatly appreciated. :D</p>
    </blockquote>





	Strange Statues

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [](http://starscythe.livejournal.com/profile)[**starscythe**](http://starscythe.livejournal.com/) for the [](http://community.livejournal.com/sj_everyday/profile)[**sj_everyday**](http://community.livejournal.com/sj_everyday/) secret santa. I didn't manage all parts of the prompt (it kind of took on a life of its own) but I hope you still like it. Thank you, [](http://odakota-rose.livejournal.com/profile)[**odakota_rose**](http://odakota-rose.livejournal.com/), for beta reading! Your input was greatly appreciated. :D

There are some things that Jack will never get used to seeing.

Carter with a baby is definitely at the top of that list.

"Need any help with her?" Jack asks, circling the bed nervously. He's not really worried that this is anything Carter can't handle - after all, this is _Carter_ \- but he feels like he should be doing something. He's the leader of SG-1. It's his job to be... leader-y.

"I don't know." Carter is staring down at the baby with a blank look on her face. She looks up at him and her eyes are so huge that it's distracting. "Sir, I-"

He doesn't get to hear whatever it is she has to say. Frasier comes in, frowning furiously over her clipboard. "Sir, I just don't understand this."

Jack almost interrupts her to ask if this is something that Hammond needs to be here for but he sees a little fist emerging from the blankets and by the time he can draw his eyes away, Fraiser is already talking again.

"Genetically speaking, she is... your child."

"Mine?" Carter squeaks.

"Not just yours, Sam - _yours_." She moves her hand in a sweeping gesture between Jack and Carter. "Both of yours. This baby is genetically - yours."

"Ah." Jack blinks once. Then again. He glances over at Carter, who has never looked more confused in her life.

Well, there's a first.

*

"This?" Jack points at Carter, who is still holding the baby. "Is why we don't touch strange statues. Is that in the rule book yet? That should be in the rule book."

Carter's face turns red. He feels a little bit bad. He hadn't meant to embarrass her. They both touched it, after all.

"Can you imagine if me and Daniel had touched it?" Jack shudders. Daniel looks fairly disturbed at the idea, but Carter is trying not to smile.

Goal achieved.

"In our defense, never before has touching an alien artifact resulted in the spontaneous creation of a sentient being." Daniel says, and then he goes on talking about a historical something or other that Jack tunes out.

He takes a few steps closer to where Carter is still sitting on the infirmary bed. He brushes the blanket aside with his finger and the baby's eyes blink open. Her eyes are blue. He wonders if they'll stay that way or if they'll change. Charlie had brown eyes. "Do you want to hold her, sir?"

He starts to say no but Carter looks a bit desperate and Jack realizes that she's been holding the baby for about two hours now and she hadn't even exactly volunteered to begin with. "Sure."

It's been a while since he's held a baby, but he figures it's kind of like riding a bike. Only... more stationary. And requiring less balancing skill. (Though still some because, while it has been a while, he's still pretty sure that dropping the baby is a no-no.)

"She's cute." Daniel says, and Jack realizes that he has an audience. Hammond and Frasier have come back from whatever they'd been conferring about and they're all watching Jack. He sits up a little bit straighter. He doesn't trust that gleam in Frasier's eye - too much 'woman finding something cute', too little 'strict and somewhat scary Air Force doctor'. He quickly hands the baby back over to Carter.

*

"You have two options, Major." Hammond informs them. "The Air Force will arrange for adoption if that's what you would prefer. This is not a situation you came into voluntarily and the Air Force is not holding you responsible for the care of this child. If there is a family member that you wish to place her with, that can also be arranged. But seeing as she is genetically yours, you are also free to keep her. A birth certificate and all the other paperwork you need can be manufactured. You will be granted the same provisions as any other new mother, including paid maternity leave."

"I want to keep her." Carter says. Jack's head turns sharply to look at her. Hammond doesn't ask for an explanation, but she plows ahead anyway. That's Carter for you; just like Daniel, never one to voluntarily shut up. But unlike with Daniel, this is a quality in Carter that Jack actually _likes_. "I'm not in a position to have children of my own. I'm - Janet's not even sure if I can conceive because of the protein marker that Jolinar left behind. I wouldn't have chosen it but this... it could be my only chance, and I... if Colonel O'Neill has no objections, I'd like to keep her."

Hammond stares at her for a few more seconds, like he's waiting for her to say something else. She doesn't. He nods and then looks at Jack.

"So, what..." Jack trails off. What exactly is he doing here, anyway?

For the first time in the conversation, Hammond addresses just Jack. "Your level of involvement is of no concern to the military for the moment but should you choose to have a more active role in the child's life we will make other arrangements as far as SG-1 goes once Major Carter returns from maternity leave."

Ah.

Well, that was pretty vague.

*

"She got a name yet?" Jack says, sitting beside Carter on the infirmary bed once more. This is the last check in before Carter's free to take her home.

The question seems to catch her off guard. She looks over at him and then back down at the baby. "I hadn't really thought about it. Do you have any suggestions?"

He's sort of surprised that she's asking. She gives him a little smile. "She's your baby, too, sir."

_Man,_ Jack thinks, _that is a weird sentence to end with sir._

"I like..."

"Don't say Marge." She quickly says. "Or Lisa."

"Maggie?" He says, hopefully. It actually wasn't what he was about to say but he's never one to pass up that kind of bait. Especially not when it might make Carter smile.

"No, sir." She grins.

"You're no fun." He whines at her. "You really don't have any ideas?"

She glances at him and then back at the baby. Quietly, she says, "Grace?"

Grace.

He likes that.

"I like it."

"You pick the middle name, then." She says, still not looking at him. "Grace..."

"Samantha?"

She shakes her head. "I don't want to name her after me."

Well, he can understand that, kind of. "Leigh."

"Grace Leigh..." She pauses. "O'Neill."

Huh.

"You sure?"

She nods. "I'm sure."

Grace Leigh O'Neill.

He grins. "Cool."

*

He's not sure quite how it's happened that he hasn't left her house in three days. Well, that's a lie; he's left the house plenty. But he always manages to find his way back there after just an hour or two. First it was just a quick visit to give his 2IC - clearly in over her head with the whole 'spontaneously a mother' situation - a hand. Carter's got a lot of common sense and he's pretty sure that she'd have figured it all out with no help but she hadn't exactly been pushing him away. Hammond's given SG-1 two weeks of down time and Jack doesn't have anything better to do.

He sleeps on her couch when he does find time to sleep. During the day Carter is glued to her laptop when she isn't actually taking care of the baby. At night she sleeps, he thinks, but that sort of half-awake state of awareness that he's used to from being in the field. He's peripherally aware that she's treating this like a project. She holds the baby, feeds her, burps her, changes her diaper but he hasn't seen really seen any moments in which Carter actually looks like a mother. He feels bad for thinking it, but it's true. There's something almost mechanical about the way she's going about it and it kind of... bugs Jack.

There's a lot that he's forgotten about being a father. He can remember Charlie being this young, but time and his own lengthy absences during the time his son was a newborn have dulled the memories. He remembers coming home for leave midway through Sara's pregnancy and finding that she'd decorated the baby's room without him, right down to the crib and the changing table and the pictures on the wall. He remembers being relieved, enjoying the fact that he could spend the time with her instead of just putting furniture together.

This time he relishes shopping for all of the necessities. The very first day he buys a crib and a high chair. The second day he gets a bassinet for the living room and a playpen and an extra set of bottles and a bag full of clothes. He pays no attention to the amount of money he's spending. The Air Force pays him well enough and it's not like he's a big spender most of the time.

"You're good at that," Carter says, standing in the doorway with the baby in her arms.

He looks up at the clock and then snorts. "You'd have had this thing put together in under five minutes, Carter. It took me half an hour."

She gives him a wan smile. Man, she looks tired. He tries to gauge how offended she would be if he were to suggest she take a nap.

"You enjoyed it more, then. The SGC called, they need me to take a look at something. Can you..." She nods down at the baby. "Just for a while."

Jack gets on his feet, wincing at the pop in his knees, and then takes the baby from her. "Take your time. Me and Gracie here have a date with a certain hockey game in about two hours."

*

There were some downsides to this little arrangement. Sure, he got to spend lots of time with his kid - his _kid_, wow - but it also became about a hundred times harder to ignore his attraction to Carter. To begin with he'd used the rationale that he'd spent countless nights asleep beside her off world, so sleeping a whole room away shouldn't be a problem.

He was wrong. It was a problem because this wasn't a tense night spent under a sleeping bag fully clothed, one eye open to watch for danger. This was sharing her personal space, seeing her first thing in the morning, knowing what color her pajamas were and what brand of coffee she kept in her cabinet.

He's stretched out on the couch sleeping when she gets back home. He sits up when she comes in, scrubbing his hand across his mouth and rubbing his eyes. "Everything okay?"

She nods at him, hanging her jacket in the hallway and kicking off her shoes. Her toenails are painted light blue, but chipped.

That should probably be filed under Things He Shouldn't Notice.

"Coffee?" She asks. He nods. Coffee is good. Always. Always good. The baby will be up soon, so there's not much point in going back to bed yet, anyway.

He follows her into the kitchen. "You eat?"

"Yeah, I grabbed a sandwich a few hours ago." She says, setting the coffeemaker up to do its thing. She turns around. "Sir?"

"Yeah?" He says. He thinks about how many times in the past few days he's heard her say that three letter word, and how right now he's standing in her kitchen in his boxers and a t-shirt at half past twelve. "Hey, Carter, call me Jack."

"Um. Okay." Whatever she'd been about to say, she loses her nerve. She turns back around. "Janet wants me to bring her in tomorrow for a check up, since it's been a week."

"Whoa." He looks around for a calendar. "A week already?"

"Yeah." She gives him another of those tight little smiles. "Time flies, sir."

He watches her back, his mind briefly revisiting that time he got to see her practically naked. He shifts on his feet. "Hey, Carter?"

"Yeah?" She pulls two mugs out of the cabinet.

"Everything okay?"

"Of course it is."

Of course it isn't, but if Carter says she's okay then he has to act like she's okay.

*

He talks to the baby a lot. He tells her all kinds of secrets. He tells her about Charlie and how he thinks Charlie would have liked having a little sister. He tells her about things he's done wrong in his life and the things he hopes to get right this time around. He tells her which kid's books were his favorite and Charlie's favorites and how as soon as she's old enough to read - which will probably be at about six months, if she takes after her genius of a mommy - they'll have to start picking out ones that she likes.

When Carter isn't home, he tells Grace other things. Stories about Carter and Jacob, things that he can't say out loud to anyone else. The way her mommy's smile is so pretty it hurts and all the many times and ways Carter has saved his life and his soul. He tells her that she's breaking all the rules just by being born and that that is _totally_ something she got from him. He tells her how glad he is that she exists and how he'll never let anything happen to her.

*

Carter's crying.

Jack's pretty sure this is something that he isn't supposed to be here to see. On the verge of crying is okay. After a mission, after being tortured or watching someone close to them die - it's okay for her to almost cry. It's okay for her to excuse herself, even if everyone knows what she's doing. It's okay if he doesn't have to _see_ it. Carter crying takes him out of that zone where he can see her as just his 2IC. Carter crying makes him look at her like she's a woman and that's when he gets into trouble. Because Carter, as a woman, makes him want to do anything in his power to make it better for her. Those moments - and yeah, they happen more than the Air Force would be strictly okay with - when he looks at her and sees a pretty face and soft curves instead of a soldier watching his six... those are the ones that seal his fate.

"This just isn't how I expected things to go." She says, wiping her eyes. She's sitting on her bed wearing short little shorts (_not looking not looking not looking_) and a little gray cami and tears are running down her face despite her best efforts. "It's ridiculous but I feel like I'm not doing enough."

"What?"

"What?" He sucks in a breath and makes a decision. Two seconds and he's shrugging off every military protocol drilled into his brain. He crosses the room and sits beside her, puts his arm around her. His fingers curl against her upper arm and encounter warm, bare skin. Oh yeah. Shouldn't be enjoying this. Really shouldn't. "What in hell are you talking about?"

"I don't know how to be maternal." She says, and he can feel her shoulders trembling. Her whole body is shaking and he has to wonder what she's been telling herself in that big, overactive head of hers.

"Carter." He squeezes her until she leans against him. He can smell her hair. _So_ should not be enjoying this. "Listen to me. You're gonna be a great mom. You're working with a handicap here. Most women have nine months to get used to the idea. You had no time. Less than no time. The kid was here before you even knew what was happening. Cut yourself a break, okay?"

"Is that an order?" She gives him a watery smile. Damn, that smile does things to him.

"If it needs to be."

She's still looking up at him and it's getting a little too serious. He'll do anything for her when she gives him that look. She probably knows it, too. He thinks of Tok'ra symbiotes and her dying in a cell with her head on his shoulder. His stomach twists dangerously.

She sighs, a sweet little sound. He fully expects to hear _yes, sir_ leave her mouth.

"Okay, Jack."

That's better... and worse, in a different way.

He really wants to kiss her right now. Two days until they're back on active duty. He wonders on a scale of one to ten, how inappropriate it would be. He wonders if he really cares anymore.

A thin, reedy cry disrupts the moment. A pained look crosses her face but Jack squeezes her shoulder and tells her to stay. He goes to get the baby, wrapping her in one of those really soft blankets and then taking her into the bedroom. He motions for Carter to sit back on the bed and she does, making herself comfortable with propped up pillows. He makes the bottle and takes it to her, settling onto the bed beside her.

He watches Carter and the baby - damn cute kid they've made. Kind of made. In a weird, alien technology involving way. Wispy brown hair and big blue eyes, cute little pink mouth. And Carter... her eyes are red and she still looks like she could use about sixteen hours of sleep but damned if she isn't still the most beautiful thing he can remember seeing.

"Do you want to know why I named her Grace?"

"Huh?"

Carter looks up at him. "I picked Grace for a reason. Do you want to know why?"

"Sure..." Jack says, cautiously.

"When I was on the Prometheus?" She waits for his nod, wanting him to understand exactly which time she's talking about. He remembers in technicolor and surround sound, just as clear as a bell. "I had hallucinations. There was a little girl... I saw a little girl. She told me to call her Grace."

"Ah."

"I don't know what it means." She confesses. "I don't know what my subconscious was trying to do by making me see a little girl. Daniel, Teal'c, you... my dad, even... I understand. But not her. But when you asked me about a name... that's what I thought of."

Jack slowly, carefully, giving her plenty of time to move away, puts his arm around her. He's almost surprised when she lets out a little sigh and leans into him. She fits herself more snugly against him than before when they've done this.

*

It gets better after that. And... worse, in a different way. Some of Carter's tension leaks away. She plays with the baby more. He even catches her singing once or twice, and promptly mocks her for it.

His two weeks of leave are up. He's not sure where to go at the end of the first day, so he just sort of hangs out in Daniel's lab. He's pretty sure that Daniel isn't going anywhere any time soon, if the stack of untranslated tablets on his table have anything to say about it.

"You should take her out to dinner." Daniel says, but as he speaks he very carefully looks everywhere but at Jack.

"What?" Jack demands, halfway turning around to stare Daniel down.

"Sam. You should get her out of the house. Go do something fun. I'll baby-sit. Let you guys de-stress."

"There are so many things wrong with that idea... Have you ever even held a baby? And Carter's fine, she's..." Jack waves a hand around emphatically. What is she? Not indestructible. Not perfect. Just... _Carter_. "Fine. And we can't-"

"Jack." Daniel interrupts him. "You can't what, exactly? You guys have a _baby_ together. I'd say the line has been well and truly crossed."

"Baby's one thing. That's... another."

"You're living together."

"Are not."

"Jack. Where do you sleep?"

"...Carter's couch."

"For how long?"

"Since she brought Grace home."

"Which has been..."

"Couple weeks."

"And when do you plan on returning to your place?"

"Daniel." Jack snaps, tired of the question and answer session. "Drop it."

Daniel frowns, but he doesn't say anything else.

*

He goes back to his own place that night. He calls Carter and tells her. She doesn't seem disappointed and he convinces himself that he shouldn't be disappointed because of that.

He microwaves some pasta and eats it sitting on his sofa, a game on the television in front of him. And wonders what Carter is doing. Wonders if Grace took her bottle easily and if she fussed before she went to sleep. Wonders if she did that thing where she looks like she's smiling right at them while she's drinking. Wonders if Carter remembers where he put the extra diapers.

It's only half past nine and he's had to stop himself from reaching for the phone twice.

By ten he's laying in bed. He crosses his hands over his stomach and stares down at his toes. He doesn't like all of this time to think. Daniel's words are still rattling around in his brain and it makes him uncomfortable.

At half past eleven he's sitting at his kitchen table cleaning his gun when the phone rings. The little screen lights up with "Carter, S." and he's thumbing the call button before the second ring has started.

"I think she misses you." Carter says.

Jack puts the disassembled parts of his firearm down and sits back in his chair. "That so?"

"She's sort of... whining. Not crying, but she's fussy."

"I could come over?" He offers.

"No, no." She protests. "I know you wanted a night to yourself, I just..."

"Yeah?"

"I like having you here, sir."

"Ah."

"Is that okay to say?"

"Carter, I don't have any control over what you say."

"Really, sir?" She says. Her voice contains a hint of nerves and very little of that ingrained submission that he'd expect from a soldier. That's okay, though. He stopped really thinking of her as a soldier the first time he saw her standing there almost crying with baby puke on her shirt at three in the morning. "Because you seem really good at stopping me from saying things sometimes."

"Yeah." He clears his throat. "About that."

"Jack." She interrupts him and he sends a short thank you to whoever might be watching from on high because he hadn't a clue as to what had been about to come out of his mouth. "Why don't you come back?"

He looks at the clock. "Tonight?"

"Yes, sir."

"Right now?"

"Sir," Carter says. She sounds like her patience is being tested and it makes him smile. He recognizes that voice. He _loves_ that voice. This may be uncharted territory but _she_ is still familiar to him.

*

This time, he packs a bag. Two bags, actually. That's quite a commitment, considering how light he usually travels. The entire drive over he has these visions of how it'll go. Even in the safety of his imagination he can't think of what he'll possibly say to her, but he does get very involved in what will happen after these grand confessions. That part makes him shift anxiously in his seat and hope his breath doesn't smell like parmesan.

The door is unlocked when he gets there and he puts his bags down by the door. The house is quiet and he finds Carter asleep on her couch. She's dressed for bed and there's a little milk stain on her shoulder that he finds incredibly endearing for some reason. He sits down on the floor beside the end of the couch where her head rests and turns sideways so that he can watch her. She begins to stir after only a few seconds, still as light a sleeper as ever. She squints in a confused and sleepy kind of way and then her mouth softens into a smile. "Jack."

He feels that old indescribable tug somewhere deep inside of him and leans forward so that his head is resting on the cushion near hers. She slides forward until they are eye to eye, so close their noses almost touch. "Hi."

Her smile grows and he feels her nose brush against his. There's a brief burst of _I can't believe this is really happening_ in the back of his mind but then he's kissing her, slow and soft. He pulls away when his back begins to twinge and rises to his feet. He motions for her to scoot over and he settles himself between her and the back of the sofa. She curls into him, almost on top of him so they can both fit. There's a blanket draped over the back of the couch and he eyes it but decides that he doesn't really need it yet because right now he's feeling pretty damn good.


End file.
